What we do for the camera!

"Smile for the camera!" she said as she held the small lense out in front of her to capture the moment.
She felt excited.The anticipation of getting home to view the pictures was her secret joy. Images captured in time.A memory that wouldnt fade ,unlike her mind.

There was always a moment of sadness mixed with the thrill.When she got home she wished she could reach out and touch the soft skin in those pictures.Take up that moment and start a conversation over a beer. Join in the laughter again.Bring back the moment and the feelings..........
There would be more.There were always more.Different faces, different locations, even different countries.

She felt lonely. She picked up the phone to call a friend.No answer.She called another.No answer.

She went back to her pictures.

There was her best friend,smiling sweetly.She took on the pose of Betty boop all too well and she smiled at her friend in the picture.
She remembered once they had sat in a cement tunnel in a kiddies playground smoking and talking about life. She had said she was gnna marry and have a trillion babies. I had said that was never gonna happen to me.I would travel the world.Seek places unknown.Always be a little different and always a little sexy.
She was always the strong one back then.Always stable.Never showing errational emotion.She was the one you could turn too for constancy.I on the other hand was emotional to extreme.I was a tornado whirling into places and leaving behind me devastation. She would pick up the pieces quietly,lovingly.
We started making haunting strange noises in the tunnel that echoed loudly around us . It amused us for a time and then we sat quietly. Our knees were up around our ears .The only way we could squash ourselves into our private cubby hole. It was amazing how we could bend our bodies so effortlessly.Inside there it was our world.We could dream there. We did dream.we dreamt of money and love and comfort.The kind of dream you dream when you know nothing of those things. We didnt know how we would get them,we just dreamt.
My father always said to me "Money doesnt grow on trees you know" , but we didnt care .To us it seemed it did.It would just happen. The future seemed too big for us to contemplate,it would just be tommorow and the next day and then the next and hell why worry..........But dream ? Yes we could dream............
The smell of the grass outside wafted into me.It was late.It was damp and smelt like earth.Our butts were dirty. We could hear people walking down the street on the far sidew of the park.Laughter emerging into our ears.Quiet voices as they walked thier way home. We were different somehow.We were invincible.We would be gone from this place when we were there age. Where would we be???
Her thoughts returned back to where she was. Strange. I couldnt possibly have overlayed the now image with the image of then. The picture had taken her in and made her thoughtful. The two girls were wildly different now .They still loved each other but life had mellowed them. The pursuit of happiness was not wrapped in dollar bills and Mansions, there was comfort of sorts,the kind you get from running your own life and being responsible. Getting to choose your bedtime.Getting to pick your own food .Choosing who to love and who to avoid. Our jobs didnt define us. although they often felt they did but they challenged that idea.Its me that counts.Its how I interact with other and what I give to the world around me that matters. That was a comforting thought. The ability to make choices and change the world around you....

She sat at her computer observing the array of images in front of her,waiting for the next picture to stir her memory.It was just a memory after all.It wasnt the now.She couldnt touch the skin or sip the beer or jump into the clear blue water. She knew though that she could make a choice in the future to surround herself inthose things again.They too would be a memory at another point in time, but at some moment it happened and she had been there.